Christian Reflection and Prayer

Holy Tuesday

Read Luke 23:26-31.
TEXT: And there followed Him a great multitude of
the people and of women who were mourning and
lamenting for Him (Luke 23:27).

Jesus is carrying His cross to the place of execution.
But the severe flogging and other mistreatment has
sapped His strength so that He can no longer carry
His cross. The Roman soldiers force a man named
Simon, who was coming into Jerusalem from the
country, to carry it for Him.

A great crowd of people follow Jesus, including
women from Jerusalem, weeping and wailing for Him.
In the midst of His agony, sorrow and pain, Jesus
turns and tells them to stop sobbing for Him. Like
Peter, they need to weep for their sins and for the
wrath of God, which those sins have stirred.

Earlier, Jesus had wept for Jerusalem, knowing that
in 70 A.D. God's wrath will fall on that city, as the
legions of Rome surround it. Watching their children
suffering and dying in the unspeakable terror of that
siege, Jewish women will wish something no Jew
would have otherwise thought: they will wish they
had been childless! At that dreadful time those living
in Jerusalem will wish for a sudden, cataclysmic
death, instead of the slow starvation they
experienced, as the Roman legions slowly choke off
Jerusalem and grind its people into the dust.

What a vivid, horrible picture of hell, where people will
long to be exterminated in one rapid moment. Instead,
they will suffer the slow, burning terror of hell, knowing
it will never, ever end. Today is the time for each of us
to weep, mourn and seek God's forgiveness in Jesus
the Savior of the world.

THE PRAYER:

Almighty God, Your Son carried my guilt and sin, as
He went out to die in my place. Fill my heart with
sorrow and regret over my sins, so I may flee to Him
for salvation. I pray this in Jesus' Name. Amen.

(Lutheran Hour Ministries)